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gofpel, the apoftle infinuated, that no Jew could be faved by the law of Mofes, nor any Gentile by the law of nature. For, if the Jews could have been faved by the one law, and the Greeks by the other, the gospel, instead of being the power of God for falva tion to every one who believeth, would have been a needless dispenfation; and the apostle ought to have been ashamed of it, as altogether fuperfluous.

To prove that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to every one who believeth, the apoftle first of all obferves, that therein the righteoufness of God by faith is revealed: in the gospel, the righteoufnefs which God will accept and reward, is revealed to be a righteoufnefs, not of works, but of faith. And this being the only righteousness of which finners are capable, the gospel which difcovers its acceptablenefs to God, and the method in which it may be attained, is, without doubt, the power of God for falvation, to all who believe, ver. 17. Here an effential defect, both in the law of Mofes, and in the law of nature, is tacitly infinuated. Neither the one law, nor the other, reveals God's intention of accepting and rewarding any righteoufnefs, but that of a perfect obedience.-Secondly, To prove that the gospel alone is the power of God for falvation, the apoftle obferves, that both in the law of nature, and the law of Mofes, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, &c. That is, thefe laws, inftead of granting pardon to finners, subject them to punishment, however penitent they may be confequently, thefe laws are not the power of God for falvation, to any one. But the gofpel, which promifes pardon and eternal life, is the effectual means of faving finners. In short, any hope of mercy finners entertain, must be derived from revelation alone, ver. 18. And in regard the apostle wrote this epiftle to the Romans for the purpofe of explaining and proving these important truths, the declaration of them, contained in verses 16, 17, 18. may be confidered as the propofition of the fubjects to be handled in this epiftle.

Accordingly, to fhew that no perfon, living under the law of nature, has any hope of falvation given him by that law, the apostle begins with proving, that, instead of poffeffing that perfect holinefs, which is required by the law of nature, in order to falvation, all are guilty before God, and doomed by that law to punishment. To illuftrate this propofition, St. Paul took the Greeks for an example; because, having carried the powers of reafon to the highest pitch, their philofophy might be confidered as the perfection both of the light and of the law of nature; confequently, among them, if any where, all the knowledge of God, and of the method of falvation, difcoverable by the light of nature, and all the purity of manners, which men can attain by their own powers, ought to have been found. Nevertheless

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that people, fo intelligent in other matters, were in religion foolish to the last degree, and in morals debauched beyond be lief. For notwithstanding the knowledge of the being and perfections of the one true God subsisted among them, in the most early ages, ver. 19.-being understood by the works of creation, vér. 20.-their legiflators, philofophers, and priests, unrighteoufly holding the truth concerning God in confinement, did not glorify him as God, by discovering him to the common people, and making him the object of their worship: But, through their own foolish reafonings, fancying polytheism and idolatry more proper for the vulgar than the worship of the one true God, they themselves at length loft the knowledge of God to fuch a degree, that their own heart was darkened, ver. 21.-Thus the wife men among the Greeks became fools in matters of religion, and were guilty of the greatest injuftice, both towards God and men, ver. 22.-For, by their public inftitutions, they changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image of corruptible man, and of birds, &c. which they held up to the people as objects of worship. And by their own example, as well as by the laws which they enacted, they led the people to worship these idols, with the most impure and deteftable rites, ver. 23.-For which crime, God permitted those pretended wife men, who had fo exceedingly difhonoured him, to dishonour themfelves with the most bruitifh carnality; of which the apoftle gives a particular defcription, ver. 24,-26: and obferves, that those proud legislators and philofophers, who thought they had discovered the highest wisdom, in their religious and political inftitutions, thus received in themselves the recompence of their error that was meet, ver. 27.So that the abominable uncleannefs, which was avowedly practifed by the Greeks, and which was authorised by their public inftitutions, as well as by the example of their great men, was both the natural effect, and the just punishment of that idolatry, which, in every state, was established as the national religion. Farther, becaufe the Grecian legiflators did not approve of the true knowledge of God as fit for the people, the great men, as well as the vulgar whom they deceived, loft all sense of right and wrong, in their behaviour towards one another, ver. 28.-most of them being filled with all manner of injuftice, fornication, wickednefs, &c. ver. 29-31. Nay, although by the law of God written on their hearts, they knew that thofe who commit fuch crimes, are worthy of death, to fuch a degree did they carry their profligacy, that they not only committed thefe fins themselves, but encouraged the common people to commit them, by the pleasure with which they beheld their de baucheries in the temples, and their revellings on the festivals of their gods, ver. 32.

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Such is the apostle Paul's account of the manners of the Greeks from which it appears, that their boasted philofophy, notwithstanding it enabled them to form excellent plans of civil government, whereby the people were infpired with the love of their country, and good laws for maintaining the peace of fociety, it proved utterly ineffectual for giving the legiflators the knowledge of falvation, and for leading them to establish a right public religion: defects which entirely deftroyed any influence which their political institutions might otherwise have had, in aiding the people to maintain a proper moral conduct. In fhort, the vicious characters of the falfe gods, whom the legislators held up to the people as objects of their worship, and the impure rites with which they appointed them to be worshipped, corrupted the morals of the people to fuch a degree, that the Greeks became the moft debauched of mankind, and thereby loft all claim to the favour of God. But if this was the cafe with the most intelligent, most civilized, and moft accomplished heathen nations, under the tuition of their boafted philofophy, it will eafily be admitted, that the light of nature, among the barbarous nations, could have no greater efficacy in leading them to the worship of the true God, and in giving them the knowledge of the method of falvation. The most civilized heathen nations, therefore, equally with the most barbarous, having, under the guidance of the light of nature, loft the knowledge of God, and become utterly corrupted in their morals, it is evident, that none of them could have any hope of a future life from the law of nature, which condemns all to death without mercy, who do not give a finless obedience to its precepts. Wherefore, both for the knowledge of the method of falvation, and for falvation itself, the Greeks were obliged to have recourfe to the gospel, which teaches, that because all have finned, and are incapable of perfect obedience, God hath appointed for their falvation, a righteousness without law, that is, a righteousness which does not confift in perfect obedience to any law whatever, even the righteousness of faith, that being the only righteousness attainable by finners; and at the fame time declares, that God will accept and reward that kind of righteousness through Christ, as if it were a perfect righteousnefs.-Thefe, inferences, indeed, the apoftle hath not drawn in this part of his letter, because he intended to produce them, (chap. iii. 20. 23. 28.) as general conclufions concerning all mankind, after having proved the infufficiency of the law of Mofes, for justify. ing the Jews. Yet it was fit to mention them here, that the reader might have a complete view of the apostle's argu

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I fhall finish this illuftration with the following remarks.

1. The picture which the apoftle hath drawn of the manners of the Greeks, is by no means aggravated. The intercourse which he had with the philofophers, and more especially with his own difciple, Dionyfius the Areopagite, enabled him to form a just judgment of the learning and religion of that celebrated people: as his long refidence in Athens, Corinth, and other Greek cities, made him perfectly acquainted with their manners. But though his defcription is not exaggerated, we must remember that it does not extend to every individual. It is an image of the manners of the Greek nations in general, or rather of fuch of them as were in the higher ranks of life. I call the reader's attention to this remark, because the apostle himself supposes, in the second chapter, that the Gentiles, who have not the benefit of revelation, may attain that faith and holiness which is neceffary to juftification in which cafe he affures us, that they shall be rewarded with glory and peace. Befides, it is well known, that, in every Gentile nation, there were always many who believed in the one true God, and who, in the perfuafion that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them who diligently seek him, were anxious to know and do his will; and who being instructed and strengthened by God, behaved in such a manner as to be acceptable to him.

2. My fecond remark is, That although the revelation of the wrath of God from heaven, against all ungodlinefs and unrighteousness of men, mentioned by the apoftie, Rom. i. 18. certainly implies, that no finner can have any hope of falvation from the law of nature, it does not follow, that the pious hea thens had no hope of falvation. The heathens in general believed their deities placable, and, in that perfuafion, offered to them propitiatory facrifices, and expected to be pardoned and bleffed by them, even in a future ftate (See Guardian, No. 27.): nay, many of them believed they were to reanimate their bodies. But thefe hopes they did not derive from the law or light of nature, but from the promise which God made to the first parents of mankind. For that promife being handed down by tradition to Noah, and his fons, they communicated the knowledge thereof, together with the ufe of facrifice, to all their defcendants. So that the hope of pardon and immortality, which the pious heathens entertained, was the very hope which the gospel hath more clearly brought to light, and was derived from the fame fource, namely, from divine revelation. Withal, being agreeable to the natural wifhes of mankind, and the only remedy for their greatest fears, these circumftances contributed to preferve it in the world. Since then, the hope of pardon and of a future ftate, which the heathens entertained, was derived, not from the light of nature, but from the primitive revelations, VOL, I.

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the apostle's reasoning in this chapter is perfectly juft, and his conclufion stands firm; namely, that the light and law of nature hold out no method in which a finner can be faved, and that it is the gospel alone which hath brought the important fecret to light, by explaining and enlarging the primitive revelations, and by teaching in the cleareft manner, that God will accept men's faith for righteousness, and, at the judgment, reward it as if it were a perfect righteoufnefs, on account of the obedience of Jefus Chrift.

3. My third remark is, That the description which the apostle hath given of the national manners of the Greeks, however difgraceful to human nature, being perfectly true, merits attention; because it is a complete confutation of those who contend, that natural reason hath always been sufficient to lead mankind to just notions in religion, and to a proper moral conduct. For after the weaknefs of human reafon, in matters of religion and morality, hath been so clearly demonstrated by experience in the cafe of the Greeks, who, of all mankind, were the most distinguifhed for their intellectual endowments, the futile pretence of the fufficiency of the light of nature, fet up by modern infidels, for the purpose of rendering revelation needless, should be rejected with the contempt due to fo grofs a falfehood. And all who are acquainted with the actual state of the world under the guidance of the light of nature, ought thankfully to embrace the inftruction contained in the gospel, as the most effectual means of training ignorant finful creatures to virtue; and should humbly fubmit to the method of falvation by Chrift, therein revealed, as of divine appointment, and as the only method in which finners can be faved.

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PREMONITION TO THE READER.

HOME perhaps may be of opinion, that to have done juftice to the following tranflation of the apoftolical epiftles, the author, as often as it differs from the common verfion, should have fhewn the import and propriety of thefe differences, with the reasons on which they are founded, especially when they are of the minute kind; because negligent readers, fancying differences of that fort of little moment, and not attending to those which are of greater magnitude, are apt to conclude, that the tranflation, now fubmitted to the public, differs fo little from the one in common use, that it might have been spared. But nothing can be worfe founded than such a conclufion. Perfons who are judges

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